The Settlers () is a city-building and real-time strategy video game series created by Volker Wertich in 1993. The original game was released on the Amiga, with subsequent games released primarily on MS-DOS and Windows: The Settlers II (1996), The Settlers III (1998), The Settlers IV (2001), The Settlers: Heritage of Kings (2004), The Settlers: Rise of an Empire (2007), and The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom (2010). There are also several spin-offs; The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) (2006) is a remake of The Settlers II, The Settlers DS (2007) is a port of The Settlers II for Nintendo DS, Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen (2008) is a German-only spiritual successor to 10th Anniversary, The Settlers HD (2009) is a handheld remake of The Settlers IV, and The Settlers Online (2010) is a free-to-play online browser game. With the exception of The Settlers HD, Ubisoft Blue Byte has developed every game in the series and published the first three titles. From The Settlers IV onwards, Ubisoft has published all titles.
An eighth game in the main series, The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria, was scheduled for release in 2014, but after the game's closed beta was abruptly shut down by Ubisoft in light of negative feedback, the game was removed from the release schedule. It was ultimately repackaged and released in 2016 as Champions of Anteria, an action role-playing game unrelated to The Settlers series. A franchise reboot, initially named simply The Settlers, was scheduled for release in 2019, but was postponed and all preorders were refunded. In January 2022, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released in March of that year. In March, however, it was again postponed. In November, Ubisoft revealed the game was now called The Settlers: New Allies. It was ultimately released in February 2023.
Narratively, each game is a stand-alone story with no connection to the other titles in the series (although Rise of an Empire is an indirect sequel to Heritage of Kings). From a gameplay perspective, although each game tends to feature its own set of innovations and nuances, broadly speaking, they are all built on a simulation of a supply and demand economic system in which the player must maintain the various chains of production, building up their military strength and the robustness of their economy so as to defeat their opponents and achieve certain predetermined objectives. Some games foreground city-building and complex daisy-chain economic processes whereas others focus on real-time strategy and building a diverse military force. Common game mechanics include resource acquisition, economic micromanagement, managing taxation, maintaining a high standard of living, trade, and technology trees.
Critically, reactions to the games have been mixed, ranging from universal praise for The Settlers II to universal condemnation for The Settlers DS. The series has sold very well, with global sales of over 10 million units as of September 2014. It has sold especially well in Europe. The games have also done well at various game award shows, and the series features two recipients of the "Best Game" award at the annual Deutscher Entwicklerpreis.
Games
Main series The Settlers () was developed and published by Blue Byte, and released for the Amiga in 1993. A port for MS-DOS was developed by Blue Byte and Massive Development and released in 1994. Blue Byte published the port in Europe, whilst Strategic Simulations handled North American publication, where the game was released as Serf City: Life is Feudal. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the game for Microsoft Windows as The Settlers: History Edition. The Settlers II (), originally named The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici, was released for MS-DOS in 1996. Later that year, Blue Byte released an expansion, The Settlers II Mission CD. In 1997, they released The Settlers II: Gold Edition, containing the original game and the Mission CD expansion. A Mac OS port of the Gold Edition was also released in North America in 1997. In 2009, the Gold Edition was released on GOG.com. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the Gold Edition for Microsoft Windows as The Settlers II: History Edition. The Settlers III () was released for Microsoft Windows in 1998. In 1999, Blue Byte released two expansions - The Settlers III Mission CD and The Settlers III: Quest of the Amazons (). In 2000, they released The Settlers III: Gold Edition, containing the original game and both expansions. In 2013, the Gold Edition was released on GOG.com under its North American title, The Settlers III: Ultimate Collection. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the Gold Edition as The Settlers III: History Edition. The Settlers IV (), named The Settlers: Fourth Edition in North America, was released for Microsoft Windows in 2001 and was the first game in the series published by Ubisoft. Later that year, Blue Byte released two expansions - The Settlers IV Mission CD and The Settlers IV: The Trojans and the Elixir of Power (). In 2002, they released The Settlers IV: Gold Edition, containing the original game and both expansions. A third expansion was released to the German-only market in 2002, Die Siedler IV: Die Neue Welt () and a fourth came in 2003, Die Siedler IV: Community Pack. In 2013, the Gold Edition was released on GOG.com. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the Gold Edition as The Settlers IV: History Edition. The Settlers: Heritage of Kings (), named Heritage of Kings: The Settlers in North America, was released for Microsoft Windows in 2004. In 2005, Blue Byte released two expansions - The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - Expansion Disc () and The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - Legends Expansion Disc (). Later that year, they released The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - Gold Edition, containing the original game and the first expansion. In 2009, the original game was released on GOG.com. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the Gold Edition as The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - History Edition. The Settlers: Rise of an Empire () was released for Microsoft Windows in 2007. In 2008, Blue Byte released an expansion, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire - The Eastern Realm (). Later that year, they released The Settlers: Rise of an Empire - Gold Edition, containing the original game and the Eastern Realm expansion. In 2015, the Gold Edition was released on GOG.com. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the Gold Edition as The Settlers: Rise of an Empire - History Edition. The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom () was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in 2010. Later that year, Blue Byte released three DLC packs - Uncharted Land (), Conquest - The Empire (), and Rise of the Rebellion (). In 2011, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom - Deluxe Gold Edition was released, containing the original game, the three DLC packs, and an unlock code for an upcoming fourth pack. That pack, The Two Kings (), was released later in the year. In 2018, Ubisoft re-released the Deluxe Gold Edition as The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom - History Edition. The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria () was scheduled for release in 2014. However, Ubisoft abruptly cancelled a closed beta after the game received primarily negative feedback. Nothing more was heard about the title until 2016, when Blue Byte announced they had redesigned it as an action role-playing game which was no longer part of The Settlers series. The renamed Champions of Anteria was released for Microsoft Windows later that year. The Settlers: New Allies (), initially called simply The Settlers, was originally slated for release in 2019. It was then rescheduled for the third quarter of 2020, but in July, it was postponed indefinitely and preorders were refunded. In January 2022, Ubisoft announced that the game was nearing completion and was scheduled for release in March. However, the game's closed beta received highly negative feedback. Acting on this feedback, Ubisoft announced in early March that the game was postponed until "a later date." In November 2022, they revealed the game had a new title (The Settlers: New Allies) and was slated for release in February 2023. They also revealed that for the first time in the series' history, a Settlers game would be a multi-platform title, with plans to release the game on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The PC version of the game released in February 2023 as planned, with all other versions releasing in July.
Spin-offs The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) () is a remake of The Settlers II, released for Microsoft Windows in 2006. In 2007, Blue Byte released an expansion to the German-only market, Die Siedler II: Die nächste Generation - Wikinger (). In 2013, the original game was released on GOG.com. The Settlers DS is a port of The Settlers II: Gold Edition for Nintendo DS, released in 2007. Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen (), is a spiritual successor to Die nächste Generation, released in Germany in 2008. The Settlers HD was developed and published by Gameloft, working in conjunction with Blue Byte, under license by Ubisoft. It is a remake of The Settlers IV, and was released for iOS in 2009, for webOS and bada in 2010, and for Symbian and Android in 2011. The Settlers Online, named The Settlers Online: Castle Empire in North America, is a free-to-play online browser game for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. It was released in 2010. The Settlers: My City () is a Facebook browser game that serves as a tie-in for Settlers 7. It was released in May 2010.
Gameplay overview The core elements of The Settlers gameplay are city-building and real-time strategy. Both the original Settlers and The Settlers II are city-building games with real-time strategy elements, and have similar gameplay and game mechanics. Unlike the first two games, The Settlers III and The Settlers IV foreground real-time strategy elements over city-building, with more focus on combat than their predecessors. The Settlers: Heritage of Kings is unique in the franchise insofar as it focuses almost exclusively on real-time strategy and combat. After Heritage of Kings received a negative reaction from fans, the next game, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire, returned to foregrounding city-building over real-time strategy. This was true to an even greater degree in the following game, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, whose gameplay was based on the most popular title in the series; The Settlers II.
In the first five games, the primary goal on each map, broadly speaking, is to build a settlement with a functioning economy, producing sufficient military units so as to conquer rival territories. To achieve this end, the player must, to one degree or another, engage in economic micromanagement, construct buildings, and generate resources. In Rise of an Empire and Paths to a Kingdom, the importance of military conquest is scaled back, with many maps requiring players to accomplish certain predetermined tasks tied to the economic strength of their city. Whilst the first four games feature broadly similar supply and demand-based gameplay, starting with Heritage of Kings, Blue Byte began to alter the game mechanics from title to title. So, with Heritage of Kings, there is little focus on micromanagement, daisy-chain economic processes, or construction, and more on technology trees, combat, taxation, and workers' motivation. Rise of an Empire features a significantly simpler economic model than any previous title in the series, with the complexity of the various supply chains significantly streamlined. Paths to a Kingdom features a more robust economy and focuses on micromanagement, daisy-chain economic processes, city organisation, upgrading buildings, technology trees, and trade requirements. Additionally, for the first time in the series, the gameplay in Paths to a Kingdom is flexible enough to allow players to develop their settlement based upon one (or more) of three basic options - military, technology or trade.